Transformers: More than Meets the Eye season two discussion

[Patapsco]

One thing... SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!







Loving Megatron's "rumbled" line

[Unicron]

Ok, that's kind of fun. Megatron sitting on high, doling out strategic advice while Rodimus complains and everyone still follows orders.

So... Magnus with a hammer again. What does everyone reckon, new preferred melee weapon or another battlefield improvisation?

I wonder what's on that first page that we aren't seeing that leads into this flashback.

[Patapsco]

I *think* that's Optimus in the bottom panel and judging by the reaction lines above his head he's just been told something shocking maybe?

[Knightdramon]

I will admit to being a tad disappointed with the issue. I have read it around 4 times by now just to see if my opinion would change.

Besides being the 3rd or 4th time that something evil is lurking the corridors on the LL, and the 3rd time in S2 at least that a horror setting is up [biggest fan of horror films in the room mates, but not so frequently!], there's something missing from the overall story that left me a bit disinterested.

It felt...too short? Way, way too short? 2 rooms short? Because the story just goes from bay hangar to prison to bay hangar again, in the span of a few pages, and that's where it ends.

Nice "cop-out" with Getaway's "injuries". I must admit that I must be the only person that actually likes the guy anymore His precision injuries are horrific but make perfect sense considering his skill set. Wonder what happened to Atomizer.

Can't understand what is up with Froid---am I the only one that thought that his whole role in this issue made no damn sense? Why oh why take out the bar locks AND the handcuffs of the villain willingly, then run around with the heroes?

Tailgate's newfound powers don't make much sense but I'll bite, as it's probably the continuation of the experiments that Sentinel did in the past, only this time they're done right.

Loving Megatron's development, although he could not have picked a worse moment to undergo that. I do find it interesting that he repeats the exact same mistake from 4 million years ago---just taking it to the extremes. If it's not unrestrained violence and pre-emptive aggressiveness, it's pre-emptive pacifism. It's interesting that he is reverting, or has reverted to his pre-war stance though.

On Skids and Tarn, the whole flashback was underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, it is horrific and despicable, but after so much gore and punishment and psychological torment and and and, this seems like a relatively tame thing in comparison.

Although I will recognize that it's not the actual "crime" itself that Skids is upset about, it's his guilt over it. This is probably a fan obsessing over it in his head for years, but it would have been...more suitable, if you will, that Skids was actually the undercover Vos, having to massacre bots like that, that pushed him over the edge, set up as an undercover agent by Prowl.

On Tarn, again, fan with expectations, but this is yet another moment of "ohhhh maybe...? nah no". I still maintain he is Roller but Skid's line of "I wonder what goes on behind his mask" had me double-guessing myself for a moment. Blacked out moments aside, I was under the impression that Skids -did- recognize him last issue, but there was surprisingly little angst and "how could you do this".

I do like Tarn's "younger" and more elegant design, and it looks like he hasn't developed his transformation craving at that point. It also looks like the DJD are not formed yet at that point in time [which would make it take place before SL: Thundercracker].

He appears "stable" at that point, what with no addiction yet and no [on screen] second thoughts and guilt. I wonder if there's any significance with the Miner bodies he has strung up his wall...

[Denyer]

Intriguing comment here;

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transform ... 48827.html

there are two publishers publishing IDW TF comic in China, and each version has roughly 70000 copies per issue

[inflatable dalek]

On the DJD, I assumed this was before he joined them (if not before they existed), hence his name being blocked out last issue, he hadn't assumed the mantle of Tarn yet. Though I'll admit to having forgotten to check if anyone calls him by name in flashback here so I may be wrong...

I think I was the only other person to care enough about Atomiser to ask. According to James he's alive and locked up elsewhere.

And as a mature man, I won't do a joke about where they shoved the bow.

[Patapsco]

On the DJD, I assumed this was before he joined them (if not before they existed), hence his name being blocked out last issue, he hadn't assumed the mantle of Tarn yet. Though I'll admit to having forgotten to check if anyone calls him by name in flashback here so I may be wrong...

I think I was the only other person to care enough about Atomiser to ask. According to James he's alive and locked up elsewhere.

And as a mature man, I won't do a joke about where they shoved the bow.

this is the panel in question. Skids fills in the blanks from the second sentence of the last bubble. From this we can make an educated guess that he recognises the commandant from his voice, but he doesn't bring it up again

I do like Tarn's "younger" and more elegant design, and it looks like he hasn't developed his transformation craving at that point. It also looks like the DJD are not formed yet at that point in time [which would make it take place before SL: Thundercracker].

he definitely goes from vehicle mode to bot when Skids is first shown fixing the gas chamber, I mean teleportation chamber

Intriguing comment here;

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transform ... 48827.html

70,000????? I don't think either will be getting cancelled any time soon then?

[Death's Head]

I'm not sure why but I found that final panel utterly horrifying and depressing. I'd been drinking, admittedly, but I just stared and re-read that final epilogue over and over for about fifteen minutes. It sickened me.

I'm not normally that sensitive!

However, I am capable of understanding when a writer wants me to feel uncomfortable. For instance, with Getaway's predicament - you're absolutely supposed to go whoa, hold on a mo, that's nasty... Of course, as pandagork pointed out, some members of our fandom have a problem with ambiguity* of any kind and James basically had to spell it out in tweets, but ho-hum. I must admit, I was very surprised at the 'controversy' such as it was.

*This is the fandom, remember, that interpreted the line in Beast Wars, "Welcome to the dark side", as referring to the ship rather than just being, you know, something bad people say.

[Knightdramon]

*This is the fandom, remember, that interpreted the line in Beast Wars, "Welcome to the dark side", as referring to the ship rather than just being, you know, something bad people say.

:lol::lol::lol::lol: had almost forgotten how retarded parts of this fandom can be.

[Patapsco]

:lol::lol::lol::lol: had almost forgotten how retarded parts of this fandom can be.

the same fandom that, when reading in comic the moral dilemma of selling a brain damaged Grimlock for cash batted no eyelids, but drove Roberts off twitter for a month when he dared ask the same question and wanted a vote on it because then it was offensive to the disabled

[Auntie Slag]

So with Ratchet and First Aid gone, and Ambulon and that medical droid dead, who are the medical geniuses who will be putting Thunderclash, Froid et al together again? Was the implication that the same happened to Rodimus too? And there's still someone technical enough on board to disable Getaway like that, too.

Yeah that final scene was pretty brutal. Skids is the (part) architect of the Smelting Pools, great reference to a story nearly 30 years old, great that its an Autobot that is the cause of this. And the artist really went to town on that final image. Also the Thunderclash splitting in half scene reminded me strongly of a Thunderclash centric scene in Robert's Eugene's novel.

I liked Skid's keenness on the job. He just loves to be busy. Nice contrast also to 30 years ago where you had a neutral who was forced into creating the Decepticon Space Bridge, and here you have an Autobot who was almost happy to do it. And now they're both spanners.

[Knightdramon]

So with Ratchet and First Aid gone, and Ambulon and that medical droid dead, who are the medical geniuses who will be putting Thunderclash, Froid et al together again? Was the implication that the same happened to Rodimus too? And there's still someone technical enough on board to disable Getaway like that, too.

Yeah that final scene was pretty brutal. Skids is the (part) architect of the Smelting Pools, great reference to a story nearly 30 years old, great that its an Autobot that is the cause of this. And the artist really went to town on that final image. Also the Thunderclash splitting in half scene reminded me strongly of a Thunderclash centric scene in Robert's Eugene's novel.

I liked Skid's keenness on the job. He just loves to be busy. Nice contrast also to 30 years ago where you had a neutral who was forced into creating the Decepticon Space Bridge, and here you have an Autobot who was almost happy to do it. And now they're both spanners.

The medical officer on board is Velocity right now [picked up from Thunderclash's crew in the space barnacles two-parter].

Very true on Tarn, I don't think anybody refers to him by name in the prison. I might be wrong but I think JR did mention that he's the first [and only] Tarn so far?

[Death's Head]

So with Ratchet and First Aid gone, and Ambulon and that medical droid dead, who are the medical geniuses who will be putting Thunderclash, Froid et al together again? Was the implication that the same happened to Rodimus too? And there's still someone technical enough on board to disable Getaway like that, too.

That's what's her name, Velocity. And I did enjoy how Rodimus' reaction to being scrunched up into a ball was to basically crack on as normal.

Also the Thunderclash splitting in half scene reminded me strongly of a Thunderclash centric scene in Robert's Eugene's novel.

Ooh, yes. Hopefully that clumsy bastard Ultra Magnus will keep his hands well away!

the same fandom that, when reading in comic the moral dilemma of selling a brain damaged Grimlock for cash batted no eyelids, but drove Roberts off twitter for a month when he dared ask the same question and wanted a vote on it because then it was offensive to the disabled

It's this idea that if a character performs an action, then it must follow that the writer then approves of that action that gets me - what boring bloody fiction we'd end up with! I take solace in the fact that it must be a (very) vocal minority who get upset about things like this - the vast majority of people who read the comic are, I hope, capable of actually reading.

[Auntie Slag]

It raises the old trauma question again. There's Rung and Chromedome very concerned about Skids repressed memories and what could happen if they flood back. In the same comic Thunderclash, Froid and others have been painfully turned inside out.

I could get Thunderclash overcoming that, and possibly Rodimus. But what about everyone else. Wouldn't they be rocking in a corner, sobbing? That's one thing about this comic, I never quite gauge how an individual manages to cope with all the horrific things that happens to them. That's probably answered by Megatron, he's changed massively, and brilliantly. Rodimus went all spazzy when it was Chromedome, Rewind and Max who saved the crew from Overlord... Red is kind of dealing with things because he pairs well with Max.

I guess this is the most interesting thing in the comic in a way. How these guys do so much crap to each other and can still enjoy a walk on the beach without crying into the sea or shooting at shadows.

Also also, how many of the crew are going to die over the next few issues before Megatron has to resort to violence against Tarn and Deathsaurus?

[Patapsco]

I'd wager that lots of crew members are going to die because Megatron's severely underpowered due to Quickmix's fuel and the substandard chassis he's using at the moment

As for the deep seated psychological trauma, I think that's the overarching story that Roberts is aiming for: how does one adapt to a normal existence when you've been at war for millions of years?

[Auntie Slag]

I wonder if we'll finally get to see Spoke and Lockstock? I appreciated the fact that we got to see two of the Pyrobots in the previous issue (I assume that's who they were), and they had some funky designs. Still gutted about Tripodeca.

Or will Tailgate save everyone? God I hope not. The coincidence of him becoming superpowered right before the proverbial hits the fan! Or is it going to be a mega Skids sacrifice? Has everything we know about him been revealed sufficiently now that he can get obliterated? Maybe not, because he spoke to the weird alien sphere thing in 'Remain in Light'.

And also, in the comic there is an ad for the front cover of Issue 50. At the bottom of the image Chromedome, Magnus, Whirl and Cyclonus are standing on a mountain edge, and that edge has Overlord's face!!! (with a little bit of Rodimus for good measure I think).

So that's all the bad guys in one arc! (apart from Sunder, Tyrest and Pharma). Really happy that Milne's coming back for this one, feels like he's been gone for ages. Ryuichi Sakamoto is fine when he's not penning tracks for Bowie films, but I do miss Milne.

[Patapsco]

that cover, if you look a bit closer at the mountain, you'll also see Pharma, Star Saber, Trailcutter, Mainframe, Tyrest, Red Alert & The Sparkeater amongst overs. Oh, and that's Tarn behind Megatron...

[Auntie Slag]

Megatron's forehead is mountainous, too.

Perhaps the only interesting thing Sunder said before he got crushed was to expand slightly that Mnemosurgeons die because they get addicted to injecting, moving closer and closer to their own deaths with each injection. Which explains why Rewind is so adamant for Chromedome to give it up.

I still feel like Chromedome is the reason for almost all the bad things that have happened to people in this comic. I can't list all the reasons because they're all in previous threads when he's done dodgy stuff, but maybe the poetic way to kill Chromedome would be for him to inject someone to save them, giving his own life as forfeit.

Maybe he'll save Skids in the next arc, just as our Lost Light Rewind makes his eventual return in time to see his love bite the bullet. Oooh that'd tug on the ol' heart strings. And he'd probably repeat the three words from Rewind's data slug as he did so (assuming they're different from the empty speech bubble he said to Rewind on the other side of the slow cell door.

That's just reminded me how 'pit of the stomach' painful it was to see Rewind trapped in there with Overlord smiling down. Ugh.

[Auntie Slag]

One other thing's popped into my head; so Megatron swears to never hurt another living thing and he's gone all Cerebros-pacifist. But isn't he still facing the death sentence once the Lost Light has found Cyberutopia?

... I'm just being dim aren't I. He'll have to turn before they find it or else that really will be his end. So Megatron's destined never to reach Cyberutopia at least.

[Unicron]

One other thing's popped into my head; so Megatron swears to never hurt another living thing and he's gone all Cerebros-pacifist. But isn't he still facing the death sentence once the Lost Light has found Cyberutopia?

... I'm just being dim aren't I. He'll have to turn before they find it or else that really will be his end. So Megatron's destined never to reach Cyberutopia at least.

It's not a certain death sentence. Everyone is assuming that the Knights will put him to death after he finds them and they hear his case. However, it's not guaranteed.
They could find Cyberutopia but discover that the original Knights are dead, thus there's no one capable of passing Judgment on him as per the rules of Luna 2. Which would mean either another trial, or he gets off on a technicality.
The Knights could also turn around and absolve him of his wartime sins, or at least sentence him to something other than death. Hell, they could even be 'evil' and commends Megsy on his old actions. Especially if they end up being Techno-supremacists.